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Trip to China
Itinerary
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November 24-25
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November 26
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November 27
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Gotcha
Day! |
November 29
| November 30
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December 1 |
December 2 |
December 3 |
December
4 |
December 5 |
December
6
A Day Touring in Hong Kong
November 26, 2005
Today we had the most wonderful time touring and sightseeing
around Hong Kong. We spent the morning on the “Island
Orientation” bus tour, which lasted about five hours. First,
we went to Victoria’s Peak, which overlooks most of Hong
Kong. Although we didn’t get to ride the famous tram that
runs horizontally uphill, we still had a great time. Next we
headed to Aberdeen, home of the world-renown floating
restaurants and fishing village, and took a sampan ride.
After visiting a jewelry factory (ooops, there went most of
Janie’s spending money; Grammi & Granddaddy ~ I bought a
charm of a sampan to go on the charm bracelet you gave me), we
headed for Stanley Market and Repulse Bay. There we did more
shopping and enjoyed the gorgeous views (way too many to show
here!).
After a little R & R this afternoon, we took another tour this
evening called the “Top of the Town and Night Cruise”. We had
a delicious buffet dinner at a restaurant in the heart of Hong
Kong Island called R-66. This is the only restaurant in the
area that revolves 360 degrees, showing you all of the evening
Hong Kong skyline, from 64 stories up! We truly had a
wonderful time and met some other people vacationing from all
over the world. Afterwards we headed to Temple Street, an
outdoor flea-market type area for MORE shopping. Fortunately
for Kevin, since we were with a tour, we only had 45 minutes
to spend there, so Janie was only able to do about $20 worth
of damage. Our evening ended with a beautiful and relaxing
cruise on the famous Victoria Harbor; truly a breath-taking
sight.
Some facts we learned about Hong Kong during our tours:
*Hong Kong has about 7 million residents, with 20 million
tourists visiting every year
*Hong Kong consists of 216 different islands
*Hong Kong means “Fragrant Harbor” in Cantonese; British
sailors gave Hong Kong it’s name because of the incense
fragrance they could smell as they first came near the area
*Multi-generation families live together in small houses or
apartments; it is very common for a family of 5 or 6 people to
live in a 500 sq ft apartment (see Mimi, you don’t have it so
bad!)
*The area Kevin and I are staying in is called Tsim Sha Tsui
(pronounced “Jim Saw Joy”); it is across the Victoria Harbor
from Hong Kong Island and is the most densely populated area
in the world
It is difficult to explain the sea of humanity here. Just
walking down the street is exhausting, but exciting at the
same time. It is also a very unique feeling to be different
from everyone else. You almost feel like people are staring
at you all the time, but of course they’re not; they’ve got
their own lives to lead.
Tomorrow we leave Hong Kong in the afternoon to travel to the
city of Guangzhou. Our train ride should take about 2 hours.
We chose to take the train rather than flying in order to see
some areas of China we might not otherwise see. We leave
around 3:00pm and get in to Guangzhou at 5:15pm. We will be
staying in Guangzhou for the rest of our trip.
The next time we post, we should have JacJac! It’s hard to
believe we’re counting down in hours now, instead of days…
Since we’re in transit tomorrow, we won’t have Internet
availability, but there will be some more pictures posted of
today’s adventures. And as always, thank you for your
continued prayers and the encouraging emails!
Much love,
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